Russia and Ukraine continued on Thursday their long-range attacks far from the front lines, resulting in civilian casualties.
Initially, the Ukrainian General Staff said 13 people were killed in Russia's overnight strike, while Russian officials reported four civilian deaths in Ukrainian drone attacks.
Later, Ukraine's State Emergency Service (DSNS) said that the death toll from the attack on Kyiv has risen to 25, with 85 others injured, and search and rescue operations are still underway in three locations in the city's Darnytskyi district.
The DSNS also reported casualties in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced on Telegram that damage had been reported in all districts of the Ukrainian capital and later declared a day of mourning for Friday.
"Air defense supplies for Ukraine are an absolute and critical priority. Contributions to the PURL (Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List) program remain essential—they directly help save lives. Every bilateral agreement we reach with our partners on air defense truly makes a difference," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on US social media company X in reaction to the overnight attacks.
He argued that it is important they move forward with implementing agreements on the production of anti-ballistic capabilities, further saying they also count on a decision by the US regarding licenses for Patriot missile systems and other forms of cooperation.
In an evening video address later in the day, Zelenskyy acknowledged a "shortage of anti-ballistic means" in Ukraine, stating that Kyiv's partners, primarily the US and European countries, must be more active in assisting his country in this regard.
Separately, Ukraine's Air Force claimed that Russia launched 74 missiles and 496 drones overnight, with Kyiv as the main target. It said 25 ballistic missiles and 12 attack drones struck targets at 33 locations, while falling debris was reported at 18 locations.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces overnight used long-range precision weapons launched from the air, sea and land, as well as drones, to strike defense industry enterprises and fuel and energy facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region.
Military airfield infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions was also targeted, it said.
According to the ministry, the strikes were carried out in response to Ukrainian "terrorist attacks" on civilian infrastructure in Russia.
In Moscow, speaking at a press briefing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia's overnight strikes were directed exclusively at military or military-related facilities.
He noted that Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported the outcome of these attacks to President Vladimir Putin, who is also the country's supreme commander in chief.
In Russia, Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said one person was killed and four were injured when drone debris caused damage to an industrial site and residential buildings. He added that air defense systems had intercepted 30 drones overnight.
In the Belgorod region, local authorities said one man was killed and his wife injured when a drone struck a private house in the village of Malakeyevo.
The Russian-installed governor of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said two employees of an energy company were killed during repair work in a drone strike.
Later Thursday, acting Bryansk Governor Yegor Kovalchuk announced that two people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a bus traveling from the Belarusian capital Minsk, to the town of Anapa in Russia's southern Krasnodar region.
The Belarusian Health Ministry reported separately that three people were injured due to the attack on the bus, adding that those injured are now in Belarus, where they will be given the necessary medical care.
Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed head of the Luhansk region, later said that 12 people were injured in a Ukrainian attack on a bus in the city of Lysychansk.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its air defenses shot down 327 Ukrainian drones over 18 regions, as well as over the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's General Staff said Ukrainian forces struck another Russian oil refinery, the Lukoil Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery in the town of Kstovo in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region.
Ukraine also said it struck a drone storage site in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhzhia region, a railway bridge near Stanytsia Luhanska, and a Russian command post in the Kharkiv region.
The General Staff later commented on the incident involving the bus traveling from Minsk to Anapa, denying that Ukraine conducted such a strike and describing it as “yet another groundless accusation.”
"The Russian military and political leadership have traditionally resorted to staged incidents and attacks against their own citizens in an attempt to distract the international community from yet another act of terrorism in Kyiv, where dozens of civilians were killed and injured as a result of a massive Russian attack on residential neighborhoods," spokesman Andrii Kovalenko told state news agency Ukrinform.
Independent verification of claims by both sides is difficult due to the ongoing conflict.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday strongly condemned what he called “overnight Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.”
"There have been reports of at least 20 people killed and dozens injured, as well as civilian infrastructure struck. Any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, wherever they occur, are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and must stop immediately," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters during a briefing.
He added that Guterres renewed his appeal for urgent de-escalation leading to “a full, immediate, and unconditional ceasefire.”
Dujarric said UN humanitarian colleagues have identified a deadly pattern of strikes in densely populated areas across Ukraine, with civilian casualties rising 40% between December and May compared with the same period a year earlier.
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